The newspapers, television and radio seem to be awash with that dreaded word – redundancy. Everywhere I turn it is doom and gloom and if I believed everything I would be like fairytale character “chicken licken” and be waiting for the sky to fall down. Why is it being covered by the media? Well that’s what we want to read, see and hear.
Yes there are an increasing number of redundancy announcements in Ireland but there are as many job creation announcements. New job announcements don’t sell papers at this present time and they are often by the way comments. “BREAKING NEWS: 400 jobs lost in Dublin as the employment market takes another bashing. Oh and by the way a US multinational will create 3000 jobs in Kildare”. The reality is new job creation is matching and even exceeding job losses. There has always been redundancy in Ireland. Remember when the IT/electronics sector crashed in 2001. Our economy is moving from its manufacturing employment base and there are also shorter product life cycles through factors like increased competition and improvements in technology. You can expect redundancy announcements at a more frequent rate. Gone is a job for life.
There are two points to make on the redundancy topic. Firstly people believe what they read and this affects their outlook and reinforces their beliefs. I met a chap through work recently and the meeting reinforces this point. He was working in a job he didn’t like. He had been made redundant, struggled to find suitable work and therefore took up his current post. He commented that there was no work in the region and he could list five recent redundancy announcements with great conviction. There was no future and everything looked grim and everyone and everything was to blame except him (this is my next point but let me finish this one). As we spoke I opened the local paper I was holding in my hand and I pointed out the new jobs announcement in the next town. This individual had not seen the article. Why? Because he was only looking for the news he wanted to see and the stories that would back up his reality.
The other point is that that people respond differently to redundancy and they have different outcomes after redundancy. Why is this? I have worked with a number of organisations that closed their doors in various locations, trying to get work for those who were let go. I have always been amazed with how different people react. Comments like “I hated that job and thank God I got the push”, “Now I have the opportunity to go traveling” and “I am going to use the few quid to set up my own business” still ring in my mind amid all the doom and gloom. I guess these people are not victims to the event. If redundancy was the determining factor everyone would be miserable but this is not the case. There are those who do not blame the event but instead they take control of what the think and what they to do to get the outcomes that they want.
Yes redundancy is not a nice place to be especially for those with financial and family commitments. There is the fear, anxiety, stress BUT if you blame the event you have no control of your destiny. If you change your responses to the event and take action what seemed like a disaster could turn into a bright new future. So is redundancy the end of the world or the start of new beginnings? – well that is up to you!!
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